The death of warlord Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash was an assassination attempt organized by Nikolai Patrushev, a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Western intelligence officials and a former Russian intelligence officer told The Journal that the death of the Wagner Group boss in August was instigated and approved by the 72-year-old.

Prigozhin, who led a short-lived uprising against Russia’s Defense Ministry this year, died after his business jet crashed in a fiery crash outside Moscow. At the time, Putin suggested that a hand grenade had exploded on the plane.

In reality, the former Russian intelligence officer told Gazeta, Patrushev ordered his aide in August to design an operation that would kill Prigozhin.

A small bomb was planted under the plane’s wing during a delay when security inspectors were looking at the plane, Western intelligence officials told The Journal.

Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, told Reuters he would not comment on the story, adding: “Recently, unfortunately, The Wall Street Journal has been very fond of producing pulp fiction.”

Patrushev, like Putin, was a spy for the KGB intelligence agency. He later became head of its successor, the FSB. He is now secretary of Russia’s Security Council and is seen by some as a fallback option for Putin should anything happen to the president.

The paper described Patrushev as “Putin’s oldest ally and confidant,” describing him as loyal to Putin and linked to killing those who threatened Putin’s power.

Patrushev, the report says, mostly goes unnoticed during public events and is often a figure in the background. But it gives great power.

He had been telling Putin since the summer of 2022 that Prigozhin was a threat because the Wagner Group gave him too much political and military power, the report said.

Putin ignored those warnings until Prigozhin called Putin in October 2022 to complain about a lack of sufficient equipment, the former Russian intelligence officer said.

Prigozhin’s relationship with Putin and the Russian military soured: In June, Russia’s Defense Ministry said fighters in groups like Wagner had to sign official army contracts, angering Prigozhin.

In its rebellion, the Wagner Group took over a Russian military headquarters in the city of Rostov-on-Don and began marching towards Moscow, shooting down Russian planes and helicopters.

The uprising ended before it reached Moscow, with a peace deal that included Prigozhin leaving Russia for its neighbor Belarus, a Russian ally.

Patrushev came up with that deal, which also allowed his men to join him or fight in the Russian military, The Journal reported.

Prigozhin’s death was widely seen as suspicious, as it occurred two months after Prigozhin and the Wagner Group organized his rebellion. But Russia denied any involvement. The Journal report is the first to say that Patrushev was behind Prigozhin’s death.

👁️[WPPV-TOTAL-VIEWS]